Thunder falter late against Portland

TRENTON — The Thunder couldn’t overcome a rough start from Bryan Mitchell on Friday night and lost to the Eastern League-leading Portland Sea Dogs, 4-3, at Arm & Hammer Park.

Mitchell struggled in his 3 1/3 innings. He threw 59 pitches and allowed six hits and three runs, two earned.

“I think he pitched OK,” acting manager Julio Mosquera said. “It wasn’t his best stuff today, he had to battle out there. He did the best he could out there.”

Manny Barreda relieved Mitchell and kept the Sea Dogs (36-18) off the board for 3 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts — all in a row in the fifth and sixth innings — and allowed only one hit.

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“He’s been throwing a lot of strikes,” Mosquera said. “That’s the name of the game — if you command and throw strikes, you’re going to be able to use your secondary pitches, which helped him a lot. His changeup was pretty good, pretty good slider. He was able to use those pitches because he was throwing his fastball for strikes.”

The game-winning run came in the top of the eighth with Tyler Webb on the mound. With runners on first and second and one out, a dribbler fell to Tyler Austin at third. Austin hesitated and didn’t get anyone out.

Webb walked Bo Greenwell to force home the go-ahead run, and the Thunder (30-25) couldn’t answer in the eighth or ninth. Gary Sanchez grounded out to end the game with the bases loaded and two outs.

Peter O’Brien hit his 10th home run in 20 games for the Thunder in the fourth inning to bring them within one.

The next three batters reached to load the bases with no outs, and one scored on a Carmen Angelini sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3-3.

Sanchez plated Ben Gamel in the first inning with a double.

The Sea Dogs scored their first three runs in the third and fourth innings. Stefan Welch and Matt Spring each knocked home runs in the third. Sean Coyle doubled to lead off the fourth and scored later in the inning on a fielder’s choice.

Portland’s starter, Brian Johnson, went six innings, striking out seven batters and walked three. Two of the three runs he allowed were earned.

Michael Olmstead picked up the win for the Sea Dogs by tossing two shutout innings and allowing one hit.

Mookie Betts, one of the top prospects in the Eastern League, struggled against Thunder pitching. He entered the game hitting .350 but went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.

Trenton’s Sanchez had a good game behind the plate. In the fourth inning, he threw out two runners trying to steal second base.

“Gary has a special arm,” Mosquera, the Yankees’ catching coordinator, said. “It’s something that you can’t teach. ... He can throw the ball pretty good.”